GoDaddy acquires Neustar’s registry business

Goodbye Neustar! Hello GoDaddy Registry!

GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), today announced it is acquiring Neustar Inc’s Registry business. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2020.

The Neustar Registry business features a backend registry technology platform and domain security systems that enable people and brands to connect and transact online.

It makes you wonder why GoDaddy didn’t acquire the registry side of Uniregistry but only the registrar, marketplace and a domain name portfolio. Maybe they picked what they thought was the better registry backend (or probably the better business) and went with Neustar.

On Friday the Colombian government allowed Neustar to run the .co registry for a further 5 years.

“GoDaddy is committed to helping everyday entrepreneurs bring their ideas online with the best possible domain name choices,” said GoDaddy Chief Operating Officer Andrew Low Ah Kee. “Neustar’s registry platform enables us to accelerate that commitment and provides enhanced scalability for future growth. For more than two decades, GoDaddy has used its consumer insight to drive innovation in the domain industry and we’ll continue to do so by creating more choice and value for consumers.”

The new service will be called GoDaddy Registry and will be led by Nicolai Bezsonoff, currently Senior Vice President and General Manager of Neustar’s Registry business. As part of the transaction, GoDaddy will strictly adhere to a governance model that maintains independence between the GoDaddy registry and registrar businesses. GoDaddy has worked closely with both registrars and registries for more than 20 years to help grow a healthy and competitive domains market and it will continue to do so for the benefit of consumers and the industry.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mr. Bezsonoff said, “Our team is thrilled to join the GoDaddy family. We share a strong history of partnership and collaboration with GoDaddy that spans two decades. Additionally, we have the same values, a common culture of innovation, and a mutual vision for empowering individuals, businesses and brands to succeed online.”

The Neustar Registry business includes an extensive portfolio of top-level domains, including .biz, .co, .in, .nyc and .us, and supports more than 215 TLDs and approximately 12 million domains.  This includes its Managed Registry Services business that provides end-to-end registry management for over 130 brand TLDs and 70 generic TLDs.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP acted as legal advisor to GoDaddy.

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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

15 comments

  1. This is neat. They probably knew about the Neustar deal while considering uni too. GD and UNI (the registry) don’t have a great history. GD even de-listed many UNI domains.

    Neustar is about 10x larger in every aspect. GD probably felt it their best option to get their foot in the door without fumbling around at first.

    Now we just need to hear from the .com’r trolls ya know, the ones that said “godaddy didn’t buy Uni (registry tlds), bcoz .com king”…ya, where are those guys now? Why do .com’r cheerleaders seem to eat crow every week now?

    Really im not trolling. I like to see the opinions of these people whom have strong opinions against this move. Is there ANYONE willing to raise their hand, and say “this is a dumb, mistake investment!”? Dying to know, really. I want to laugh today.

    • Hi, i like your comment. I have had a dozen of donuts domains most of them I let expired. Currently I am considering on a com domains but my main portfolio on a co it’s hard to explain lol. My fav tlds: com Co org net. why bcoz they are trustworthy. I do not like new gtld renewals.

    • Well they made it clear legacy gtlds and cctlds have value. New gtlds do not.

      • “new tlds do not have value”

        Try basing your posts on some facts.

        The avg. .com last year sold for $1.3k
        The avg .ntld sold for $4.1k

        Come talk to me when you are in touch with ‘reality’ and have a feel for ‘value’.

        ..to thebrands.co um, so nothing works…some ppl aren’t cut out to be domainers.

        PPL love to say point at renewal costs and compare to sales and say “SEE bad investment”.

        Well, .com annual renewal collections is 10x higher than aftermarket sales…SO on the SURFACE anyone can point and say, “terrible” investment.

        But that’s not the case. It’s a matter of TERRIBLE INVESTORS, the outnumber the smart ones…10 ppl need to LOSE money for 1 to make a fortune, I guess you’re one of the losers?

  2. How much think they paid, Konstantinos?

    I guessed Uni cost wrong, and want to give it another shot.

    Neustar was sold for $2.9 billion in 2016. How much this time?

    • Konstantinos Zournas

      They lost .au, they kept .co but with worse terms and got unlimited price increases for .biz. Especially at this time I would say lower maybe?

      • Discount “other assets” included 2016, as well.

        Neustar 2016 revenue was $1.2 billion, when acquired for $2.9 billion, 1st time.

        Guessing 90% of that coming from the registry side? : ) agree with you.

  3. This is a pure Vertical acquisition. Not AT&T big, but still huge.

    Was the part of Neustar, Godaddy didnt buy, (DNS, and DDoS)
    worth anything?

  4. Godaddy is a company with the intention of monopolizing everything that is available and in my way of understanding the markets the Companies that want to be monopolize and it is not good at all rather it is bad there are many examples between Microsoft and Apple here with Godaddy there is none that I can follow him for what he is developing economically, when it is highly likely that the market economy will go down very high and with the unknown of the stock markets, buying in this way is due to my knowledge, it is not necessary to cover as much market or it is a matter life or death, time will tell if it works out for you, now you just have to finish your shopping round Flippa.com is for sale

  5. I still do not understand how Ethos Capital has not bought and so we would save .Org

  6. GoDaddy vs Verisign, let the games begin.

  7. Sorry, I post again for a misspelling,

    I still do not understand how Ethos Capital has not bought and so we would save .Org

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